Safety Budget and a case of Safety

It is always sound to know how much an activity costs. Therefore, budget should be made for safety just as for any other activity. It should be comprehensive, covering not only the salaries of the staff but also what is expected to be spent on training, publications, lectures, demonstrations, incentive schemes, firms, visits abroad etc.

Lines of Contact:

The only thing which has such importance that it might be repeated here is that in any company safety should have a free channel to management, so that it cannot be over ruled or subdued without the possibility of appeal.

Different lines of contact, however, are required to ensure interchange of experience, increased knowledge and new development. Here we have to establish a communication whereby companies within a group make available their recorded and classified findings, and the logical central point to receive and distribute such findings is a Central Safety Committee.

The information received by the Central Safety Committee should serve a three fold purpose:
1. It should provide the designer with ideas for the introduction of new techniques and operations.
2. Such experience gained is often of benefit to all companies in that group.
3. It also forms the major source of experience on which to base the constant review of safety codes.

The information collected readily provides an indication where the enemy struck most frequently. Accordingly changes should be made in the design of equipment, in plant layout, in the size and shape of steps, protective guards, etc. This should ensure greater safety in the future for the outlay of a new plant.

Finally, to conclude, a company should arrange for a group between safety officers of various companies.

For safety work, many items of safety promotions have to be tested against experience with employees. For example, safety posters and illustrated booklets with safe practices which are most effective in one country or region mean nothing in another country or region. The attitude vis-a-vis injury and death is very different in various places in the world. Training techniques must differ greatly in order to be effective.

These are only a few of a range of problems which the safety man has to deal with. It seems logical that repetition of misdirected effort can be prevented when the safety people from various companies operating in certain areas can freely exchange their opinions and findings. This type of contact, which can never be covered efficiently be a company, should therefore be established by national conferences on Industrial safety.

Illustration:
Safety Data – Chlorine:

Hazards Associated with Chorine

Health Hazards:
General – chorine gas is primarily a respiratory irritant. It is so intensely irritating that concentrations above 3 to 5 ppm by volume in air are readily detectable by normal person. The threshold limit value of chlorine accepted at present is 2.9 mg/m3 of air.

Acute Systematic – chorine gas is extremely irritating to the mucous membranes, the eyes and the respiratory tract. If the duration of exposure or the concentration of chlorine is excessive, it will cause restlessness, throat irritation, sneezing and copious salivation. In extreme cases, lung tissues may be attacked resulting in pulmonary edema. The physiological effects of various concentrations of chorine gas are shown in the Table below:

3. Maximum amount that may be inhaled
For 1 hour without serious disturbances 4.0

4. Noxiousness, impossible to breathe
for several minutes 5.0

5. Least amount required to cause 15.1
Irritation of throat

6. Least amount required to cause 30.2
Coughing

7. Amount dangerous in 30 minutes 40 to 60
to 1 hour

8. Kills most animals in very short time 1000

Explosion Hazard:

Chlorine reacts spontaneously with hydrogen slowly in the dark but explosively in sunlight or at high temperature, to form hydrogen chloride. The rate of reaction in an equivalent mixture of the two gases is reportedly increased markedly by the presence of oxygen. This fact is of great importance during the manufacture of chlorine by electrolysis and precautions must be taken to prevent the mixing if hydrogen with chlorine in dangerous proportions which may cause a serious fire and explosion. Regular analysis of chlorine for its hydrogen content is essential. The lower explosive limit of hydrogen chlorine mixtures varies from 3.1 to 8.1 percent, depending on pressure and other variables.

Fire Hazard:

Though the fire hazard, attributable to chlorine, is only moderate, it may react to cause fires or explosions upon contact with turpentine, ether, ammonia gas, illuminating gas, hydrocarbons, hydrogen, powdered metals, saw dust and phosphorus.

Storage and Handling:

Storage

Cylinders should be stored in an upright position. They should be secured to prevent from falling over. Full and empty cylinders should not be stored together. Two containers should be stored on their sides. They should not be stacked or racked more than one high

Storage areas should be remote from elevators gangways or ventilating system because, in the event of a chlorine leak, dangerous concentrations of chlorine may spread rapidly.

Handling

Cylinders should never be lifted by means of the metal cap, nor should rope slings chains or magnetic devices be used. Unloading platforms should preferably be at truck or car bed level. The ton container should be handled with a suitable cradle with chain slings in combination with a hoist or crane having at least 2 metric tons capacity.
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